We Need to Look at Entitlements, Says AIG’s Miller

By

Neal Lipschutz

Jan 27, 2012 12:10 pm ET

Robert “Steve” Miller, the chairman of American International Group Inc. who has spent a chunk of his career as a corporate turnaround specialist, shares with some others here at Davos a short-term economic optimism, especially about the U.S. economy.

“Some of this is from an American perspective,” said Mr. Miller in an interview on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum annual meeting here. As for the compound problems of the euro zone, Mr. Miller said: “Everyone thinks somehow Angela (German Chancellor Merkel) and her cohorts will figure it out.”

So, in Mr. Miller’s view, growth in 2012 won’t be subject to “spoiling,” but bigger structural issues in the U.S. and Europe that center on entitlement programs fill him with “long-term skepticism.”

Mr. Miller, citing his own earlier statements, said with an aging population around the world, a failure to reform retirement funding could lead to “intergenerational warfare” as younger workers are asked to support increasing ranks of longer-living retirees.

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